"Flawless Muti-POV makes this a breathtaking tale"

Linda Howard has been one of the long time writers on my Keeper Shelf. She just delivers time and again tales that keep you mesmerised by her talent. This is just another in the line of super reads penned since Howard rebounded from her back troubles in the mid 1990's.

Karen Whitlaw is still having to adjust to losing her mother, when she finds an odd parcel in the mail. A package from the father she has not seen in years. Ever since his return from the Vietnam War, he has been out of her life. Having trouble with accepting her mother's death, she does not want to deal with anything from her absent father. She puts the notebook from the parcel away and promptly forgets about it. Until she receives another blow -- a call from a New Orleans detective saying her father was murdered on their streets. The kind sounding detective, Mac Chastain, just chalks the death up to another street crime, endless violence in the gritty life of a homeless man, so Karen is willing to accept his verdict. Marc is unaware of the death of Karen's mother, and the numb state she is in, so he chalks her up to being cold, heartless when she does not show reaction over her father's death.

Only, slowly Karen becomes aware the crime was made to look like nothing more than senseless violence. Someone breaks into her home, and Karen is convinced they are after the notebook she put aside and dismissed from her mind. Fearful, she examines the book and discovers her father was a sniper in Vietnam. Through the worn pages, she is shocked to discover the book is a list of everyone of his kills.

Karen now feels she is running for her life, because someone wants that book. He has killed once, thus will not hesitate to kill again. There is only one person she can trust: Marc Chastain. Together they must find the answers before they are the killer's next targets.

I always enjoy New Orleans as a setting for romance books. The city has such a old world charm, the quirkiness of the people, that it's a brilliant locale for a story, giving both the glamour and seediness that exist comfortably hand in hand. Howard uses the sensual backdrop, giving the reader a strongly detailed story with a strong hero and heroine that will keep you breathless to the end.

With flawless Mutli-POV (point of view) that permits the reader to know both characters equally well, it just does not get any better than this! Stunning techinique from someone born to write romance.

Reviewed by DeborahAnne MacGillivray
Posted November 21, 2004

Summary

Still reeling from her mother's recent death, Karen Whitlaw is stunned when she receives a package containing a mysterious notebook from the father she has barely seen since his return from the Vietnam War over twenty years ago. Unwilling to deal with her overwhelming emotions, Karen packs the notebook away, putting it—and her father— out of her mind, until she receives a shocking phone call. Her father has been murdered on the gritty streets of New Orleans. Homicide dectective Marc Chastain considers the murder nothing more than street violence against a homeless man, and Karen accepts his judgement—at firt. But she changes her mind when her home is burglarized and accidents begin to happen. All at once, she faces a chilling realization: whoever killed her father is now after her. Desperate for answers, Karen retrieves the only think that links her to her father—the notebook he had sent months before. Inside its worn pages, she makes an unsettling discovery: her father had been a sniper in Vietnam and the notebook contains a detailed account of each one of his kills. Now running for her life, Karen entrusts the book and its secrets to Marc Chastain. Together they unravel a disturbing story of politics, power, and murder—and face a killer who will stop at nothing to get his hands on the kill book.